When Phil and Giselle Hallam walked into Art Dyson’s Eckert Residence a decade ago, they felt immediately at home.  With windows facing all directions, they view the Valley and the Coastal Range, the hills, rock outcroppings, lupine and penstemon, wildlife, and no neighbors.  A skylight spotlights boulders in the entry and bathroom.

Tiger, their cat can only go outside on a leash because of bobcats, but when he was younger he jumped from rock to rock inside.

Besides the bedrooms, the 2,000 square foot house is open from end to end. What would be wasted space in a hall, opens out to an office and wildlife blind.

In the morning, as if in memoriam, the sun shines in the office and illuminates the photos of Giselle’s dear late sister; in the evening, the living room is bathed in rosy sunset.

Phil, an outdoorsman who spends a couple months a year in the Amazon jungle and generally prefers sleeping in a tent, says that in any other house, he would never come inside, but in this house he feels always connected to the outdoors. 

Sometimes the outdoors is a little too connected to the indoors.  They warn the birds away with metallic ribbons, and one morning they awoke to a stag rubbing his antlers on the glass.

As with many Dyson homes (Lapp RiverHouse included), the shower looks out on the view, but they don’t mind quail looking in.

The profile of the house highlights the repeating angles with the same barn siding and batons as the Lencioni Residence in the back and copper on the front.

As second owners, the Hallams live peacefully in this house, which seems as if it were designed specifically for the two of them.